The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for providing users with web pages for use on the internet. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for entering entity information into a database and generating web pages, and for the updating of information appearing on the generated web pages. The web pages and associated databases may have restricted access or unlimited access.
Web page development for individuals and organizations is generally performed on an as-needed basis by individuals knowledgeable in the available programming languages commonly used to assemble web pages. Each developer creates web pages having a look and feel unique to the developer or contracting organization. Consistency among web pages and web sites is strictly a function of the developer or contracting organization and whether the look and feel of another series of web pages or web sites were copied.
An organization desiring a web page may end up with a web page, or series of web pages, having the look and feel of another site, but data unique to the user must be incorporated in order for the web page to be useful. For example, the look and feel of a web site for a local volunteer fire station may be copied for use by a volunteer organization to feed the hungry, but different data about the organization and its behavior and efforts will still need to be input. While a volunteer fire station solicits volunteers and monetary donations, the organization to feed the hungry, solicits volunteers, monetary donations and food items. The data appearing on the web page requires updating, and since the two organizations have different variables and requirements, different data formats and/or presentation formats may be required. This can be labor intensive for a web page developer having many such organizational clients and web pages.
Likewise, the cost to an organization desiring its own web page for web page development and/or hosting is not reduced by the repetitive nature of the web page because significant work must still be performed by the developer. That is, regardless of whether the web page is custom built or copied and modified, someone knowledgeable in web page programming and design must still determine and incorporate the necessary programming changes.
The program of the present invention allows a user to input data about an object, an entity, an organization, or group of related units, and automatically creates a series of web pages presenting the data. These web pages may be used for public access of the input data, private access of the input data, or both. The resulting web pages can also be used to update the data the pages represent, preferably using a Graphical User Interface (GUI).
The same dynamically generated page can be used in a view-only fashion when the user does not have sufficient security access rights, or can be used to update the information or trigger some behavioral action when the user does have sufficient access rights. In general, some parts of the pages may be editable, or expose features or functionality based on who is using the application, the applications"" state, or the type of information being managed. Authorization and authentication is designed in the model as this is part of the real world problem domain.
In order to allow a user to input data about an organization from which web pages can be generated, a model of a specific, real world domain such as organization management, including its business, property, and individual members, league management (golf, soccer, and the like), or shopping malls is created. The model can be applied to any real world problem, even problems that do not directly include organizations, businesses, properties and people. Other real world problems can include, for example, classified advertising systems in newspapers or other medium, auction systems, home video rental systems, personal medical history systems, inventory systems, or any other system where the tracking of individual units or groups of units is desirable. The creation of such a xe2x80x9cmetaxe2x80x9d model of a real world domain is only possible if characteristics and behavior of the instances of the domain are mostly homogeneous. For example, a model and application that implements the concepts and behavior of classified ads can be fabricated. Classified ads in newspapers generally have the same look and feel, so an instance or incarnation of the model can be used by or provided to every newspaper organization with no or minimal additional development. In this manner, the problem is solved once, but many instances of the model can be initiated.
From such a model, an infrastructure can be built in which many instances of the real world domain are created. Such infrastructure includes components such as network communications, and servers to run such processes as databases, https, and web based applications.
Depending on the model, instances may or may not be related to each other. Identification of places in the model and infrastructure in which instances can be customized is based on some characteristic, such as type, usage, and behavior. An instance can be customized, such as including customer provided information in Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) pages or other document types such as Word, Excel, PDF, and graphics, a configuration panel in which functionality and/or security access may be dynamically enabled or disabled, or by allowing labels or types to be dynamically defined per instance.
Information of a model includes the primary objects and their relationships with each other, defining characteristics and types, formatted reports of information, and links to static information such as articles or images.
The behavior of the model includes searches based on qualified queries, interactive data management (modify data, create or delete objects, add or remove objects to and from relationships), calculations, summaries, online ordering/payment, bi-directional communication (eg. questions, comments, chat room, or electronic mail), information tracking and notification of changes, reminders, and others.
Maintenance of data of an instance of the domain is performed by an administrator of the instance or users of the instance. Alternatively, the creator of the model or maintainer of the infrastructure, such as an internet service provider, or ISP, can perform maintenance of the domain.
Using a model of entities, data can be utilized to generate web pages for multiple organizations within the same application such that the web pages have a similar look and feel. For example, if a group of homeowners associations have similar looking web pages containing similar information in a similar format, users can quickly and efficiently maneuver through the accessible information. Development costs to instantiate a new instance of the homeowner association is minimized or altogether eliminated.
An object of the present invention is to create web pages for entities based on models and predetermined templates or designs and incorporation of data about the entity into the web pages. The information displayed on the web pages can be text information, graphic information or a combination of text and graphic information, and the information may be static or animated. Additionally, the data may be input by the user when responding to queries, or the data may be drawn from a database created in response to queries or input separately.
The present invention further provides an apparatus and method that allows a user to alter the web pages created in response to the user supplied data.
Another object of the present invention is to store both the data used to create the web pages and the generated web pages, thereby reducing cycle time.
A still further object of the present invention is to allow rapid user updates of web pages.
Another object of the present invention is the generation of web pages for a variety of organizations based on models of organizations, wherein the data about the organization is entered or edited via a graphical user interface, or GUI.
Links to other web pages from the pages created may or may not be present, that is, a user is able to incorporate hyperlinks into the pages. Similarly, hyperlinks may be inserted into the web pages by the model in order to link all organizations having the same type of web page produced by the same development tool supported by this invention.
While the program of the present invention may be installed on a server for access by remote clients, the program may be operated on any computer such that a user can use the application on the user""s local system in a stand-alone fashion, that is, not connected to the internet, WAN, LAN, or other network, in order to solve the problems for which the application was designed.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention are described in or are apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.